Switching to flatbed...

In my experience most recruiters are lucky to know their own name. Everyone I have ever talked to. Mine told me to call her on a Monday or a Tuesday to see when they would have dates open. She made the mistake of telling me they were going to turn some dates open on Thursday's meeting. Friday at 9 am I called her. She had me on the standby list. 5 minutes later she called and had somone back out. 3:30 she called me. I answered the phone and said hello Janice before she said a word. She then told me she had a cancellation. I told her, "we had this conversation this morning at 9:30!" I told her I would definately would be there.

 

What kind of stuff did you haul at this outfit? Typical flatbed loads you get at Swift may not be so enjoyable, depending on what you've done before.

General rules of thumb for Swift flatbed loads are 45,000+lbs and tarping at $23. Add a governed 400-hp, 9-speed tractor to the mix, and you got a recipe for a road block. I know I was, going over Siskyous, Cabbage, et al.

You might get lucky and get a fair share of Dodge Sprinters in Ladson or Freightliner bus chassis out of Gaffney, since you're in NC. I did a fair amount of Sprinters before crooks in DC collapsed the economy, but not much afterwards.

I did a lot of coils out of Chicago and vicinity going to Nogales or Laredo*. But being from west, I also pulled a lot of lumber, dry walls and hay bales. I didn't mind coils much, but I don't recall lumber/dry walls/haybales being particularly enjoyable. Maybe it is just me, but I hate 8-foot drop tarps.

As for switching from van to flat, I have no idea what's involved other than you have to take a 2-day class plus tie down test, and you'll have to switch to a flatbed dispatcher. Not all terminals have flatbed division. Greer is the main flatbed terminal in your area, unless things have changed since I left.

My post probably came across as negative, but it was the way it was with me and I hate using lumber tarps. But, it beat the alternative. I absolutely hated sitting around waiting in line at food distribution centers and similar places pulling a van.

Anyway, best of luck to you.


*Speaking of Laredo, try to avoid the loads coming out of this place by Killam Industrial Blvd if you were ever given a choice. They usually give you crap loads (rolls of chicken fence stacked 13-ft high, slinkys, etc), and you'd be lucky if you get loaded within 5 hours. There's usually air conditioning units or Hecho en Mexico Freightshaker frame rails sitting at Laredo yard - those aren't too bad.

 

Not only the 2 day class tho. Even if you are a 10+ year vet with them as a door slammer they still have you team with a flatbed mentor for two weeks in between the tie down class and the test. Atleast that's how Greer does it.

 

Those are fun stuff. Not much of that at Swift.

Exactly.

That don't offend me a bit. I'm all for building 30-ft tall concrete walls around the state (except for CA/Mexico boarder). We'd be perfectly fine with less than 50 states.


Good luck to you!

 

UH....Should not the wall be erected along the CA-Mex border?????

 

Nah, they were talking about building the wall around the state of California. Works for me, build the wall along the Tex-Mex border and allow it to include CA too. Keep the illegals and the Ca nutcases out.

 

Precisely. So the boarder wall basically looks like the attachment. On second thought, it is probably in our best interest to enact walls around all blue states.